The Cambodia Project Takes Flight

Yes, I know it’s taken me months to write again but I have been a bit busy. As in, WAS I REALLY CRAZY ENOUGH TO MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY AND ATTEND GRAD SCHOOL AS A SINGLE PARENT WITH A TODDLER?????? Yeah, That kind of busy. Suffice it to say that my term at Bradford was difficult. Wonderful, fun, challenging, interesting, but terribly difficult. Some photos will follow, but meanwhile my focus and energy is on phase two: our summer.

The Cambodia Project

We arrived Phnom Pehn after a brief stay in Bangkok – Rotary counselors strongly suggested avoiding the city. We waited for our hotel shuttle while a half dozen Thai ladies took photos and cooed over Aiden as he showed off his car set. I suspect he already likes Thailand! Aiden was able to sleep through much of the flight from London to Abu Dhabi and again from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok – and again that night, I might add. He was sufficiently tired! So we lucked out and jet lag is impacting me far more than him. We landed by chance in a really lovely hotel with a small saltwater pool and attached restaurant, all good for those first days of adjusting to heat, time zone and noise. Villa langka for anyone traveling here. Not the cheapest, but such a nice little spot.

PP is a noisy, dirty city with mad traffic and hardly a sidewalk to be seen. Aiden is so far quite popular, almost to a fault; he now avoids the incoming pinch or ruffled hair that is endless as we progress down the streets. That said, it’s so lovely to be in a place where people openly love and appreciate children.

The expat communities at first sight appear separated between French and English, with a bit of crossover. In just two days here Aiden has met two students with whom he’ll be in French school, if in fact this works out well for him, and we’ve gotten several tips on fun child-friendly spots (including one restaurant with a huge sandpit and slide in the middle! A great success with the A-man, I might add). So while I’m quite overwhelmed by the traffic and my own lack of orientation, I’ve also begun to realize that PP is in fact small geographically and socially.

I have yet to see my flat – that may come tomorrow – but it’s within easy walking distance to several possible schools. If I’m relieved by this fact, I’m a bit distressed to hear that my actual work site, TPO Cambodia, is quite a distance from anything, which will entail some form of long distance transport (and requisite costs) on a daily basis. Unfortunate indeed.

But I’m not going to stress about that yet. Our first days are intended simply to acclimate. Aiden has spent more hours in the hotel pool in the past two days than perhaps he’s spent in his entire life, and I’m not even kidding about that. He has gone from a bit timid in the water to enjoying a flotation device for hours, to wearing goggles and letting his face go underwater. We’re on a fast track swimming lesson here as we have a small pool at our flat and I’m eager to feel a bit more confident being around it. Besides, water is one of my great joys in life, and while there still is a bit of clean water in the world, I look forward to exploring it with my son!

I had been warned but am still a bit shocked at the prices here. Aiden’s little pair of swim goggles? $10! For a moment there, I had a flashback to London! Food is priced by Western standards with most meals costing between 7-20 dollars. I’m sure that once we adjust we’ll find the $1 noodle stand that will make me happy, but for now I’d like to prolong that first stomach bug for as long as possible! Ah, the joys of travel.

I’ve met my work colleague Judith who seems a smart, dedicated and fun woman (three characteristics I like a lot), and hope to meet the others by the end of the week.

So for those of you still wondering what the heck I am doing, let me back up a bit: I am in Cambodia for the summer interning with an organization called TPO, Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, run by one of few psychiatrists currently working in the country. The internship is part of my Rotary Fellowship and it’s a great opportunity to get some practical experience. I was drawn to TPO primarily for its use of Testimony Therapy, which uses a person’s retelling of his or her history and particular traumatic events in order to heal. My belief, and especially after working in Iraq, is that oral history plays a vital role in reconciliation, and sadly Cambodia has a long way to go in terms of any meaningful reconciliation following its genocide now thirty years ago.

I chose Cambodia and Dr. Sotheara Chimm after reading a blog that described his testimony at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. As described by his colleague, his testimony first covered the psychological impact of the Khmer Rouge years: “how the trauma of imprisonment, torture, starvation, slave labor, witnessing deaths, and being forced to execute loved ones has left survivors with severe anxiety and post traumatic stress.” He then described how the regime systematically broke the structures of Cambodian society one element at a time. “After the regime ended in 1979, Cambodians had lost the structures that would have allowed them to heal from trauma. There was no family, no teachers, no doctors, no monks, no honoring of the dead, no comfort, no closure, and no justice. The very institutions that would help Cambodia recover from the immense trauma no longer existed.”

Now as head of a well respected -- albeit undersourced, overworked and somewhat stigmatized psychological organization (mental illness is still not a fully accepted subject) Chimm is trying to approach the massive traumatic impact in his fellow countrymen. And he has an immense amount of work to do. I’m quite excited to be part of the team.